It's time for another Jacksonbelle challenge, and this week was an easy one: use colours that coordinate with the new Pink Paislee papers... DONE! I *love* the new line, and I think the card turned out great.

Oh yah.. The blinkie on the left. Check out the store because EVERYTHING is 25% off. And just FYI Canadians. It's only about $6 for shipping and it's really quick!

Here's my card:

I haven't had a day off since school started, and that's including weekends! It's been NUTS!!! This past weekend I was directing a group of 16 of the top high school singers in the Province in an honour vocal jazz group. They were great, but I'm beat!! I'm looking forward to a little time off tonight to catch up on some crafting stuff including getting prepared for the Crop for Kids.

What is Crop for Kids? It's a crop where all of the materials, supplies etc and TEACHER'S time is donated to the BC Children's Hospital Foundation. I have to admit that when they first contacted me to teach at the event I was hesitant. Having 4 jobs takes its toll on me, and I literally have no free time for myself, so charity has never been something that has worked its way into my life BUT I agreed to do it. The weekend this is all taking place is going to be INSANE because I have 2 conferences on the Friday (musical) and on Saturday, both of which I am heavily involved in, and then this event is on the Sunday. But you know what? When the weekend is over I know I am going to feel great about my small contribution, and it will feel good to give back..

I am teaching a class on sponging. I have no idea what the enrollment is like for my class, but I hope I have a fun bunch of ladies to share my tips with. I love sponging, and some of my favourite cards (and yours via comments) have been sponged. Here are the cards I have made for the event:


Each participant gets 3 pieces of the 12x12 patterned paper required to make the cards, as well of a package of white rub-ons, the flowers and ribbon needed etc..

If you are attending the Crop for Kids I would love to see you there! I have never been, but am looking forward to taking in all of the action! I can't wait.

Okay... off to create.

This is just going to be a quick post becuase I have to be at school tomorrow for a 7:20 am choir practice. Why do I do this to myself??? I made this for today's Limited Supply Challenge in which we are challenged to make a card with Halloween colors. I went all out.

I have been playing around with this image for a few days as this is the original stamp.

and well.. i just love dressing him up! So today he's a Dracula Chicken. haha.. I used a Copic multiliner pen to draw all of the extras in.

Here he is close:


And then the whole card:

Stamps: whipper snapper (chicken), Hero Arts (wood grain background)

Paper: DCWV, bazzil, papertrey

Ink: fresh snow (PTI Palette), memento

Accessories: copic markers, K&Co. bats, multiliner pen, ribbon

The boy is a Whipper snapper stamp, and the "hey dude" and the baseball is from a Kim Hughes set by CHF. Here's another Whipper Snapper design:


Sometimes even adding one line (in this case the "table") gives the main object some context. This is my most-used trick with a multiliner. I usually add a ground, or a table depending on the design.


I also wanted to remind everyone about our contest that we have running at Jacksonbelle all month long…You have a chance to win a $50, $30 or $15 Jacksonbelle gift certificate!   Just think of all the awesome stuff you could order…Jenni Bowlin, Basic Grey, Inkadinkado, Mary Arts…$50 goes a long way!  The contest rules are simple…participate in one or more of our Tuesday challenges during the month of September.  The only other requirement is that you use either Inkadinkado, Stampavie, Prima or Basic Grey stamps (all of these brands are carried at Jacksonbelle).  For the full contest deets, click HERE.

Watch for my Jenni Bowlin card in my next post. I just LOVE that product line.. Till then!

Okay. So I took a really big leap here and I bought a couple of canvas bags in the hope that I could make something cute like Sherrie Siemens did at the Copic certification. She gave me the info and the confidence to try it out. I, however, did not have the VersaCRAFT ink that she used, and I used Memento, so we'll see how it holds up. It stamped nicely on the fabric though!


I made Phoenix a library book bag because he lost his books about a hundred times last year, maybe this will cut down on the late-book reminders. At least if he looses the bag too someone will be able to give it back to him!

I used some Making Memories foam stamps on this bag, and they are a really great, cheap option when you need to stamp large-scale like this. So the foam stamps are "Phoenix" and "2" and I used Gel-a-tins to stamp "Loves" and "read." The dino is a Whipper Snapper stamp and here's a close-up:


I forgot to heat-set the ink at first so there's a tiny bit of running along the top, but it worked out great! I was even able to do a little shading with my Copic markers, then I airbrused in BG0000 and BG00.

Ever since I purchased my Pentax K110d digital SLR I have become, not OBSESSED, but interested in photography, and how I can get the most out of my entry-level body. (the camera, not my own body, just in case you were confused..) I want to show you how you can get your SOOC (straight out of camera) shots to look a little more well-shot and have a little more of that professional look. I said a little, because most of my shots aren't magazine quality, but I luck out sometimes..

I started out with Photoshop Elements which helped me edit photos a little more specifically than I ever did, and it allowed me the freedom to play around. I watched tutorials online and they were always so helpful, but everyone was always using the professional version of Photoshop, CS3, or the newer CS4. Well finally I gained access to a copy through my school, and I've been able to play around with "actions" and more of the manual functions of the program. With the photos I am showing you today I will be using Pioneer Woman's FREE actions found here as well as editing on my own to complete the look. Her whole photography section has helped me TONNES, so if you're at the point where you want to start learning more, read her articles, they rock!

So here are some of my before and afters from yesterday's excursion to the PNE. It's BC's state fair, kinda... Animals, rides, bad food.. you know.. Click on any pic to see it larger, although some of them are still VERY large..



*edited to add: I included one more edit of the photo because I wasn't happy with it, and "B" commented that I should have lightened just under the hat. The one on the right is where I used that technique.. I used a bunch of different actions on this one to slightly lighten up his face under his hat, and alter the colours a little. Then I cropped it, and played with the colour of the sno cone so it actually showed it's greeniness.

I had a special request from my student "B" to make a card for my student "J" who has made me a few special cards all by himself in the past... He's even taken my copic classes!!! So I knew it had to be extra-special. Here's the close-up of the main image of the card I made:


I did a little paper-tole action on this card.. So yep I coloured every layer fully, then cut out the pieces I needed. It's a really neat effect in-person, but man is it a lot of work. "J", if you're reading this, I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY! haha... just kidding. Here's the card: